eBay sellers lock-em-up-bob & samsobo forgeries slabbed by PSA/DNA

We have brought up eBay sellers lock-em-up-bob and samsobo before on this site. They are both eBay sellers who scribble on cheap base cards from the 80's, and sell them all as "signed" on eBay. These are eBay power sellers making thousands upon thousands of dollars based off of an eBay scam.

Both of these seller's use bogus "proof" photos and the power of positive feedback to continue to scam buyers on eBay. Myself and others have brought these forgeries up several times.

Now this alone is no surprise, as we all know eBay is a cesspool of scammers/forgeries. Despite the fact that their entire business is based off of .10 cent base card forgeries, eBay does not care.

Here is where the real problem lies... PSA/DNA is falling for their JUNK. We all know people make mistakes, but PSA/DNA is authenticating and slabbing more and more of these awful forgeries which is a great concern for this hobby. It has become evident to me recently that neither PSA/DNA or JSA have any clue on a lot of athletes. I have pointed out plenty of flatout LAUGHABLE Don Mattingly forgeries authenticated by both "TPAs" recently. It's beyond "mistakes", it's merely a guessing game.

A fellow collector reached out to me and shared some photos he has been archiving on this subject. Ready to spill your morning coffee?

Replies to This Discussion

He tried to refund me but I refused. He really didn't attack me or threaten me in any way. I do think its clear that Lock-Em-Up-Bob and FishingFanatic05 are the same person currently. Even if they were different at the same time. I accused both of them of selling fake autos and I received long (bizzare) emails from both and it was clearly written by the same person.

I looked at someone's previous comments and they said the "Ozzie Smith is spot on" and that is how they are fooling people. They have the shape and style of the autograph down. If you don't know what Ozzie Smith looks like (i honestly didn't) and you look at that autograph the O in Ozzie raises a red flag. These guys are smart with their scam. They aren't dumb enough to sell Munson or Maris that might attract a lot of attention. They are selling 70s and 80s cards that are incredibly hot right now. Try to find real George Brett autos on 70s cards. They aren't really out there. I'm going to take what I have and go to my local police dept and see what they will do. The worst they can do is tell me to get lost.

Wow. It's so sad how the greed of a couple losers will forever infect this hobby. Any "junk era" card signed I would completely avoid buying on eBay, even if they are slabbed by PSA/DNA. It's absolutely disgusting what eBay allows these sellers to get away with.

People need to keep in mind that when you go to an autograph show, you don't pay $50-$75 to have someone sign a junk era base card worth 1 penny. Be incredibly skeptical of these 1 penny cards that sellers have infinite "signed" supply of.

That's just what Chris used to say on his Video's so I adopted it as my own! LOL.

It was hard to break the FU-BAY habit, but much like Costco....I've lived just fine with-out them and they have been fine with-out me. LOL. I still surf it once in a while just for laughs, but it's a HARD Habit to break, especially if you need it to sell on their platform. They are a despicable company that FU-BAY .

But those junk era cards are important to some people. 1979 is the first year i started collecting as a kid and those cards are important to me. I have no personal connection to 1967 high numbers although I can appreciate their significance. This is what these forgers have tapped into. I was personally drawn to these because I thought for a nominal fee I could have cards that were important to be as a kid that were autographed. The funny thing was I kept getting outbid. Even when I felt I was really aggressive. I kept saying to a friend of mine "how do these guys get these players to sign so perfectly and add inscriptions if they are just approaching these people in parking lots or airports, it doesn't make sense." I was right it didn't make sense. When I got in my first group of HOFers from Samsobo i knew right away they were bad. From a few feet away they were perfect, but when I looked close they were clearly forgeries. I don't understand how so many people can be fooled. If you have 5000 feedbacks you have sold 5 to 10 times as many items on ebay if not more. My cousin is in the FBI and I asked him what to do and he laughed. He said "nobody cares." He said "unless its a medical insurance fraud that is over 30 million a year, then the FBI has no interest." He said if they have X amount of agents, they need 1000X to handle all the cases that come to them. I know they have handled some cases in the past, but there must have been some luck involved.

Bear in mind, some of these guys are (or were) freebie through-the-mail signers. So it doesn't seem illogical that there would be a supply of low value cards signed by them. Yes, over time the un-ending supply is a major red flag, but you are only going to know that if you have been monitoring the seller for a long time.

As I wrote previously, some of the fakes are plain to see and some are fairly deceptive. When you see the overall pattern you know there is a problem. But, if presented with just one card that was real "close," how could anyone say it was certainly fake?

Not to mention i was seen some common signed cards, that should go for $1.00 go for $50. People see what looks like the perfect signed card. Something they would never have to improve upon and they have to have it. Team set collectors and set collectors probably. Look at the results of their auctions. There is decent money in selling perfectly signed common players from the 70s and 80s.